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liz: countdown to the count down. wake up. the sequesteration alarm clock is about to ring. automatic spending cuts loom, but will congress strike a last minute deal, and what happens if they don't? we have the head of the world's largest futures market, cme group, executive chairman harry duff my live to size up the trade. what's the potential impact on commodities and options? plus, mobile wallets go west as in western union. the money transfer giant expanding internationally with a

big push in the interpret and mobile. we got the ceo in a fox business exclusive. does is apple bleeding from the bites at the shareholder meetings? should you nibble on stock right now? why a shareholder fund manager says apple is poised for a juicy turn around. "countdown to the closing bell" starts right now. ♪ liz: good afternoon, everybody. i'm liz claman, the last hour of trading, the all important hour here. glad you're with us. the bulls firmly have the upper horns with stocks rallies for the second day in a row. why is this? pending home sale z ricing to a three year high in january. durable good orders and aircraft beat expectations last quarter. stars align for what you see on the screen, a decent rally. dow jones industrials off the high of the session, 172 points.

at the high, 177 points. a hundred points away from the all-time high of 14164 back to october of 2007. the s&p up one and a third percent, a gain of 20 points. the nasdaq charges ahead, 45 points, the fourth month in a row for gains so everybody looks like they will see gains for this month, at least as of today. now, what we see here, broad based rally, all 30 dow jones industrials looking higher. many of the names in your portfolio. please, take a look, particularly, we have strength in big banks like jpmorgan, bank of america. jpmorgan with at the top with a gain of 1.68. boeing and caterpillar flexing industrial muscle. hp bringing up the rear by two pennys. in terms of sectors, check out the transports leading the markets higher. dow jones up three points making that the biggest gain since july.

not bad. the components, fedex right now, it's higher by two and two-thirds percent. ups up one and a quarter percent. united continental, that airline up 3.5%. nice move there. we really wanted you to look at the railroads. look at cfx, but kansas city southern is jumping by about six full percentage points, but the morgan stanley cyclicals looking good, economically sensitive groups with the performance there moving significantly higher by about 23 points. who makes up the index? like, we just don't throw the stuff out. names here, ford moving higher by four points. just takes a 50% gain for that. eaton up 3.5% making electrical components and power systems, and, of course, the standby, dow chemical moving higher by nearly 3%. what we have here to bring it apart and show it to you, it's

strong, and the market rallying, what's it mean with last week's sell off? a thing of the past? i hate to bring up the selloffs, but we have to ask. investors have the all clear to buy stocks or the sequester issue with a brick wall? getting to the traders at the cme group. okay, mr. chartman, mark newton, looked over your shoulder many a day at the new york stock exchange. what are your r charts telling you whether a day like today continues with a longer, sort of point inside the brain of most traders here, up 172 points. >> no. i view it as a short squeeze, actually, liz, at least in the near term. the market is experiencing a month end melt up rally. technically, there's reasons to be concerned. we've seen momentum drying up over the last few weeks when europe stopped, and, you know, there's been a pull back. the market is resilient. you have a number of indexes still near 2007 highs that have not broken out. everybody mentions dow 14,000,

that's not significant. dow 14200 and russell 1 ,000 and 3,000 against all-time highs and have to the broken out. indexes moved 12% and have not consolidated that much. we have gotten over bought. recently, there's been a little of momentum deterioration that is still a concern for me in the near term. intermediate, things are okay. >> at last check, two new highs. earlier, it was 15. what do you do? you say a little bit of a slow down when it comes to the velocity of it. if you counterbalance it with what happens in the bond market, investors own treasuries. the yields are not moving. there's not a lot of corroboration about the rally when you look over at the bond market. is that something to be concerned about? >> i think it's real. you got different worlds going on. the stock indexes, the dow is in its own world making highs on the future. going up from the old high, but you're not doing that in the s&p

or the nasdaq or the russell. they are pulledded up with the dow, and i think that between today and tomorrow we're going to get a really good answer as to was the break for real or the break just along term opportunity? in the bonds and notes, i still see people worried bowel what's going on in europe because if they are worried about america, every single economic number coming out looks great. you have very different worlds here, and gold and silver complainted, and that breaks, investors are not moving back into the assets. it's a confusing end of the month. liz: well, yeah it is. bring in oil here, mike is standing by, and k mike, we see a marginal move to the upside, bigger than expected, i guess, build in what we were expecting to see. i was at the cme yesterday, and they said, doarnt worry, it goes down more like 90 because there's a build, and, again, fundamentals continue to show supply, but at the moment, what spiked was gasoline, and today,

it's pulling back. what are we supposed to make of that? >> scrambled eggs. [laughter] it's not easy, liz. look at this. look at front month con -- continuation chart, talk technicals, 9 # 2 cent -- 92.10. last time, we broke out from that and the range was from 95 to 98. we talked about trading down to that level. until there's a settlement below there, i think you have to stay with this market. i wouldn't be surprised to be up again tomorrow. look at the brent. it came down, it was almost a dollar lower today unchanged. that came in significantly. the stock market staying higher, you know, here in america, and, i mean, seemed zoo -- seemed like the money department flow out. look at the cracks. i've said this before. i don't think the market is ready to get a big wash out here until the cracks come in. that heating oil in the gasoline, both of those cracks, that two-and-one trades at $30, it's $30 higher than a price of

refined product 30 more than the crude. until the cracks come in significantly, i don't think, you know, $9 # 0 could be the floor here, and look for $9 # #.10, a settlement below there, and get the range lower. liz: scrambled eggs. you made them for me. thanks. >> you got it, liz. liz: thanks, guys, great to see you. >> thank you. liz: apple about to turn positive or turn flat. nothing like a few worms in the apple to get people running away like a 30% drop in the stock. here's the picture, it's been very, very dramatic, up, down, all around. you know, there's an outspoken hedge fund making demands. today's ceo faced down holding apple's annual shareholder meeting. he must love doing these things. whatever he says to shareholders, though, it's not juicing the stock as you see. shares flat or about flat, down 12 pennys at the minute. the ceo tried to reassure shareholders that profit and

revenue are coming along and are on the way. cooke failed to provide investors with clarity what to do with the pile of cash. no words on dividends, buybacks, a stock split, but adam is outside the headquarters in california all day. what is he hearing from people walking in and out? what's the latest? >> well, there's two things you hear from the shareholders, first, lie take -- like the fact apple defeated david in the lawsuit. tim cook addressed this round they defeated einhorn. he addressed that using a word that starts with "s" to describe that lawsuit, that word being "silly," and he went on to talk about samsung and the competition from samsung saying apple's not interested in making the most, but making the best. the shareholders, while they cheer him and the defeat of ei nhorn, they want more money in the pockets from the dividend, and they didn't get guidance on that, as you said. we focused on the shareholders

coming out, and one of them, well, here's what she told me about put more money in my pocket. >> more cash, expend expenditured, more dividends. disappointed in the line up of the boar. i'm sure they have a position paper working on di verity including women and minorities, but what excuse in 2013? there's qualified people out there. >> and, liz, you heard this echoed by several different shareholders, protect the $137 billion apple sits on, protect it by returning more to us. right now, the dividend, 2.65 a quarter, so they want more of the money returned to them. no guidance on whether that was going to happen. what's a definite, tim said they get the opportunity to vote on the issue regarding preferred shares, essentially giving the shareholders the final say over the board of directers. he promised that's coming down the pike. back to you. liz: do you think they would have had the courage to get in

steve jobs' face, adam? no way. >> no, absolutely not. liz: all right, well, hey, one argues tim is more open to what shareholders really want. there's two sides to every pancake there. thank you very much. good to see you, ads m. if you are a top holder or holder of apple, are you happy? are you livid? coming up later in the hour, a fund manager whose top holding is apple. she has a technology fund that has its largest portion of money committed to apple saying stop fretting over apple's cash and dividends streams and focus on fundamentals. that's in just a minute. closing bell ringing in 49 minutes. all right. western union, that's an old school name, isn't it? it is embracing the digital world. point and click to immediately transfer money to somebody else or use your cell phone to make a payment. what impact is this having on his sales, and does he hear the footsteps rights bhoind him with

competitors running as far as they can? the ceo talks about that and other potential growth drive drivers for western union in 2013. it's a fox business exclusive, money transfers. ♪

♪

liz: yeah, market rally, just a point or two after the highs of the session. did you just say, "uh-huh?" benny's giving me uh-huh, market rally. 184 points right now. it is a tale of two retailers. have you seen shares of coach? looking fashionable while jcpenney weak ahead of earnings. let's get to nicole. you know, the issue with coach is interesting. >> that's right. we have two names. starting with coach. up 3.5%. couple of stories surrounding coach. the first is over -- one that there's a story circulating they may put themselves up for sale, and just that story alone is enough to push it up over 3.5%. coupled with the fact there's an executive from nike to help them with areas that they don't normally delve into as much; right? that's shoes, clothing, coach is known for leather and accessories and that.

really, they are trying to find a better way to show off the wares and move into shoes and clothing more so. on the other hand, take a look at jcpenney that's been struggling over the last 52 weeks. they had ron johnson from apple, took away promotions, nobody was coming into jcpenney. they put back promageses again. they continue to fight to get the customers back. in the meantime, he's also in the big battle with macy's over the exclusivity of certain mar that stewart products. that's two names to watch. jcpenney reports after the bell, and, yes, we absolutely are moving here to the session highs with the dow up 185 points, closer and closer to the highs that we set back in 2007. liz? liz: how about that. not bad. watching that minute by minute. interrupt us if anything happens. no problem with that. stick around for "after the bell today," bringing you breaking earnings from jcpenney, but not just them. we have limited brands and

groupon. the second those numbers are out, we will have them for you. instantaneously like wiring money, a press of a button. boy, it's come a long way from walking into a store front to send money to the home country, waiting around, did you get it, did it arrive? the business is high-tech, big time wireless, and competition among companies is amping up. what's the original name in the entire industry? western union, the man in charge, western union's ceo and president joining me now in a fox business exclusive. good to see you. >> nice to see you, liz. liz: i want to explain how it came about. we were object flight back from davos, western union, what are you doing these days? it's a massive story. companies are trying to beat you and catch you because it's changed, hasn't it? >> well, it's not changed in total. we have transferred money worldwide. we are doing 28 transactions a

second. we are in 200 countries. we have 500,000 locations, hundred thousand atms transferring money all the time. the way of changing money, sending money from the change a little bit, but do people use go to a location to transfer money and pick up it any ware worldwide. no. what's changed is people use their dot-com or mobile phones, and that's the fattest growth of the business. we are growing by 50% in the western dot-com business, and the connection is sending money from the ipad, immediately, worldwide to a location is fan tas tig. liz: so easy now. why would i need to walk into a store front anymore if i have the smart phone, i've got your website, and i say, for example, have the partnership you struck with erikson which is new. >> it is new. people have different needs. some love to use cash to go to a location, to talk to the people

in their language, some use their iphone, others like ipads, some like their pc. we're seeing it anywhere, any time, anyhow, and that's making us competitive. liz: okay. the pricing. the money grams of the world, western union, xoom. they are completely online. they don't have store fronts, and we put up the prices. you're a little bit higher, by a penny, really, but tell me why. what do i get using western union over the other guys at a lower price? >> i think our brand really deserves a premium. customers love us. they like us. i tell you why. because we are in r5 00,000 locations in 200 countries. we are not saying no to a customer. liz: let me point out afghanistan, i can send money to afghanistan, tanzania, el salvador. that would be easy because south america and, of course, mexico, nations down south have been a popular transfer from here.

>> right. we are in 16,000 corridors. you walk on to a location here in new york, and you can say yes to 2 # 00 countries, plus the atms. that's the strength of the union. liz: i look at guys like square, jack has been here, and he'll figure out how to take a guy like you on. are you ready for that? can you work as a partnership with a company like that? >> of course. we are partnered with the mobile phone companies. they need us for the close flow money transfer. the expert supports the wallet. i give you an example. ten percent of the transactions to kenya are done wireless ly. the people want to go to the location in london, receive on a mobile wallet in kenya, use the money there. liz: you guys are subject to regulation like every other industry here in america. there's a -- there's a statute in dodd-frank that says there is

going to be some strict, some limitations for what you do. i'm more interested in how closely you would watch immigration, and the developments in immigration because i assume that your classic customer is an immigrant who just wants to send money back home. are you worried about how stringent immigration laws could become? >> as you said, the major is customers who are migrants and sending money to loved ones, moving money for better to support school or their education. liz: what if they are kicked out of the country or not allowed to come into the country? >> well, i think immigration reforms helps us, actually, to regulate this. we are looking forward to having a clear regulation, and we are really, you know, i think immigration will continue as you look at demographic, demographics worldwide in europe. immigration is needed, and i think it will support, also, our business. liz: well, you've got a price earnings ratio of 8. the stock is down 20%.

supporters say that's a buying opportunity. others say what's going on here? the stock is up more than a percent today. good to have you. please, keep us posted on developments. >> thank you, liz. liz: it's a business that's growing. how many years? >> 162 years. liz: 163 years, western union, got it, the western union ceo and president, thank you very much. dow jones industrials up 193 points. just hovering around at above session highs. what we've just talked about apple; right? it's in the bear market since iphone5 back in september, down -ore than 35% since then. well, today's shareholder meeting didn't help much. are they poised for a comeback? is it an opportunity to not to miss? fundamentals say, yes. what about those who own it? apple makes up 17.of scott's callahan's fund. how much can apple go? what he thought next and what he

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liz: look at the rally bringing us closer and closer to what, you ask? well, to the dow all-time closing high. we are just about 63, 65 points away from that with a major market rally, dow jones industrials up 194 points. let's look at the s&p, specifically, not just because it's rallying, but look at the numbers. i want to put on the glasses to see. 34 stocks in the s&p500 hitting 52-week highs, and 16 of those are all-time highs. hoe interesting to see at the top of the list is delfi automotive that had gone bankrupt a while back and came out within the pink sheets for awhileful it's up five and a quarter percent followed by discovery communications looking good as well as clorox with all-time highs like it's no big

deal. kellogg, general mills, hershey, hormel, mccormick, the list goes on and on, a big day. apple shareholders meeting took place this afternoon and left investors somewhat disappointed. the ceo not allowing anybody inside. we have to imagine with the brilliant graphicking department what he looks like sitting on apple's cash horde, but failed to provide specifics with what he plans to do with the $137 billion of cash sitting on apple's balance sheet. that's has investors annoyed. does it annoy scott callahan? apple remits, what, 17% of your funds holdings, scott? >> yeah, about equal with the s&p benchmark. liz: loved it back then. do you still love it now? >> yeah. we've been big man fans of apple for a long time. icon, we have the value based methodology zoning out noise and

fluxuationing and focus on the values of the company. liz: why didn't you go to the meeting? >> ha-ha, at icon, we're not emotional value investors. we don't dig into companies or visit companies. we are really much on the balance sheet level, growing into them, growth forecast. liz: sounds like a guy named benjamin grahm and warren buffet and fundamentals of a good company. talk about the stock, itself. have you been buying at the >> no. we've been holding through the turmoil over the last few months. we held the position stable over that time. none of our evaluations, we've seen the long term growth rates come down. analysts revised backwards, but not enough. we're showing a lot of -- a lot of value in that name, and even with some of the speculation on slow down growth and the revisions backwards, apple's

still shows itself to be a strong investment. liz: doesn't sound like you are worried unlike david ei nhorn, agitating as a hedge fund manager forcing apple to give back the 137 billion in cash it has on the book back to the shareholders. how do you view that? do you agree with that? >> you know, i don't. i'm sure there's noise made at a meeting today. at icon, we run the companies through a quality met tricks, try to quantify the management of the companies and how reliable and how consistent they are in earnings, revenue growth, cost control, and we look at apple comparatively, it's one of the best looking, best managed companies we follow. that company over the past decade has really prune itself to be a well managed strong company so to let the active loud shareholders dictate where the cash levels should be, i put my trust more in tim and the management of that company. liz: i'm with you except for the fact that the company has now, in a way, at least for the moment, not saying forever,

turned into a bit of an evolutionary versus revolutionary. yes, the ipad, the ipod, the iphone were revolutionary, and now there's four or five mini, and people wonder, you guys are not using the money for big acquisitions, but build from within. nothing wrong with that, but it's just sitting there, and when a stock starts to really get into a little of trouble, as a shareholder, don't you stand up and say, guys, what are you doing here? >> yes, certainly. i think tim -- he's indicated that is a lot of money, and he actually is actively pursuing options on what to do with it, options on what to do with it. in terms of this preferred share offer bigger dividends, we believe the cash level management is more inclined to know what to do with it. while paying back through dividends in the near term might be helpful for that stock, in the short term we're more we are

concerned with long-term growth. we like to see five to seven years and if the cache can be used for acquisitions, research, growth in the company, we would like to see that rather than just given out. liz: i asked adam shapiro, a lot of investors don't trust tim cook as much as they did steve jobs. do you? >> i don't put much stake in the cook versus jobs. cook has been more lenient than jobs was. we are looking at it not emotional. i will not speculate where he will go personally. i look back at the history and integrity of the management up until this point. liz: about 17% of his fund in apple. we will be watching the sox, as i'm sure you will, very closely. the closing bell ringing in 27 minutes.

could we see a very big change not before discussed in the executive suite? charlie gasparino has breaking developments. but first, check out the dow. now we are in within spitting distance of the october 2007 closing high of 14,164. this is your money, you have to watch this one with fox business. ♪ [ female announcer ] from tracking the bus. ♪ to tracking field conditions. ♪ wireless is limitss. i don't have to leave my desk and get up and go to the post office anymore.

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[ female announcer from more efficient payments. ♪ to more efficient pick-ups. ♪ wireless is limitless. >> i am shibani joshi with your fox business brief. stocks rallied for the second straight day with a possible sequestration that could take affect on friday.

the dow is moving higher by 197 points. at&t and southwest are announcing wired line employees representing the communications workers of americc district have vetoed or voted to ratify contract covering 20,000 at&t wired line employees in kansas, missouri, oklahoma and texas. according to a new study, advertisers will spend more on social media ad in 2013 then ever before. u.s. advertisers plan to spend more than $4 billion with 64% planning to boost the social media budget this year. advertising still lags behind other ad channels, and now we continue our "countdown to the closing bell" with liz claman. >liz: what a day, dow jones industrials having a rally, but

the s&p, nasdaq, russell looking very healthy at the moment. the dow 100 points away from the all-time closing high quebec october 2007. the s&p 500 finishing higher for the fourth month in a row. nicole on the floor of the new york stock exchange to pick apart what is moving the most. nicole: let's give you the trend, right? a lot of grain and we increase going at the closing bell. the dow up 200 points, you can see everything from drug stocks, oil, and banks and semiconductors, green across the screen. a broad-based rally underway just about every sector has an up arrow. we traded as high as 14,104. our closing high just 60 points away from the 2007 all-time closing high we have had back

then. this is what we are watching. when i talk to the traitors, they don't necessarily believe the rally. some of them say it is a little bit of a short squeeze, but in the meantime, for the bulls, they're happy we are at 14,000, right? back to you. liz: thank you very much. intercontinental purchases made a huge splash in the closing third quarter of the year speculation running high in nature management chain. charlie: that is the speculation. we will get into the titles. what a lot of people have. these are people who deal in the exchange space, they are bankers for exchanges, headhunters. they say the likelihood is soon after the deal closes, i think the closest in the third quarter of this year. don't you need

this speculation has been going on for the past month. picking up speed over the last couple of days. i went to the pr guy, he is committed to staying at the exchange at least through 2014, but i will tell you -- liz: that is three extra months after the fourth quarter. charlie: through 2013. we are in 2013. staying another year and a half. i will point out nobody believes that. i have not met a single person within this space the things he will stay. and why is this? there are a lot of talk of the ceo of the intercontinental exchange somehow spinning off the cash equities business of the new york stock exchange, which is the stuff we all know. the floor, the listings business, and the moneymaking.

that has become a very low margin business over the years. market making is done off exchanges to the dark pools. the trading desk of goldman sachs, which now under the market rules can't match buyers and sellers of stocks. the nasdaq has the same issue. we should also point out the pr spokeswoman told me today they have no intention of doing this. they were committed to the cash equities business that they think through?%) financial wizardry, they will make a huge business. i like jeff, i know people on his board. i could never get his name right because i want to spell it right when i am writing it. a couple long time wall street

guys have been on the board for lona long time, so this is an amazing company that started from nothing. liz: is there an ego thing going on here? duncan is very well known on wall street, jeff is in atlanta, he has no problem with his ego, i just want a few things i don't need duncan near me. charlie: it is more duncan doesn't want to be in a place that could downgrade the business he built. he did a pretty good job, came in, did what he had to do and created, basically saved the stock exchange based on the cash equities business is not going to do very well. he has never liked stock exchanges. liz: he is an electronic guy. charlie: it has a huge drug test platform in new york known as life, that is a big reason.

that competes directly. all of these companies, all of these exchanges are competing with each other. liz: we have terry duffy in the green room right now. >charlie: these are questions yu have to post to him. i cannot imagine he wants to keep the cash. he may love it. i love it. the theory is you spin it out, who is going to buy it? maybe the dealers, something like nicholas, morgan stanley, goldman sachs, somehow like they saved knight securities in the same way. you buy it and keep it going. it is not worth a lot right now in itself. the brand is maybe worth a lot and maybe that is where he keeps it. that is what they keep saying.

duncan could call anywhere in the world and they will pick up the phone because it is a new york stock exchange. he seems like a very bottom-line guy. liz: charlie, thank you very much. charlie gasparino. 14 minutes and change before the close. we were tearing up the place. i had to clean up some of the trash on the floor. today the cme group, the traitors are in the game throwing orders all over the place, we have the chairman, one very important guy, terry duffy making his way down the hall. let's ask him about duncan, charlie. we are asking him about the deal along with all kinds of possibilities. she keeps you guessing.

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liz: cubit countdown clock. yes, here is how long we are. away from the sequester kicking in. does the market care? we have a massive rally on our hands, but unless washington can reach a deal, we will see some cuts. deep in certain areas. the futures market may actually feel some trickle-down effect. the cme group has said livestock and dairy contracts could be impacted because of cuts to the usda. the department of agriculture. what does this mean for investors? joining me now, cme executive chair terry duffy. we are a day and eight hours away. >> amazing. liz: are you preparing for this in some way shape or form? >> we are.

whether we do a cash settlement version of the physical delivery, which we can do, things of that mechanism, but i don't see this going off the projected time. liz: so you have had meetings about this possibility. >> a lot of people working on this just to be prepared in case sequestration kicks in on friday and they cut back on some summit could impact the delivery. we always do deliveries on a quarterly basis on cattle and dairy. liz: so you don't anticipate this will be huge, but does it speaks the larger issue of washington playing games like chicken like this? why does there always have to be a clock? >> i don't know. but i would hope they would stop that type of activity and look ahead like businesses do and try to plan for the future instead of hitting at the last second. the good nnws is the market is

pretty tough. whether it is in europe or in the u.s. now they are not trading on government movement, their trading on macro events. revenues i and in firms and thif that nature, that is good for the economy. liz: you have to look out over things in which you have control, that is your own business. there has been so much consolidation. you heard charlie gasparino. i have to get your comment on that, if they spin off the cash equity group of the nyse, is there anything you'd be interested possibly in? >> obviously we don't talk about speculation. liz: than a few cme guys play. >> we are very well rehearsed. liz: if you don't specifically comment on those things, specifically can comment on how you grow and how you maintain real opportunity. we have gone into europe.

>> and we compete with them today. they have the life contracts today. eventually competing with intercontinental exchange and will compete with them on interest-rate products. what is important is our asset classes, over the last two days we traded over 14 million contract representing e?ion in two days. that is a staggering amount of risk. yesterday we broke a record for five year note futures. liz: so you're not letting anybody push you off the edge, pushing guys around at all. >> no, we will stay very focused. we are not out thumping our chest. liz: let's talk about trading volumes. how do they look so far? >> 2012 was kind of a difficult

year, but a lot of it is because government intervention in the marketplace. what will happen with the uncertainty, what will the rules be? nobody knows. one thing it is all coming to a head. the first mandatory clearing for products, that is important. liz: i want to say something else that is very important, i take credit for harry being in new york right now because tonight we are honoring harry. he is our man of the honor where we build custom homes for the most severely wounded soldiers. the guy who got the double arm transplant. perry has been there for us. i keep going to you. tonight we are honoring you, so thank you. all of our viewers can help, i don't care if it is $5. thank you. >> thank you, it is an extraordinary organization. liz: thank you so much.

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